I discovered reggae in my early teen years and was immediately drawn more to dub than reggae proper. My first pure dub album was by Black Uhuru. At night while lying in bed in NYC, I would listen to the Gil Bailey show on WBAI in the early 1980s and expand my horizons. Little did I know that much of the pop music that I listened to in junior high school owed a lot to the influence of reggae. For example, the Police's song "Walking on the Moon" is a clear example.

Fiendish trips to the Tower Records on lower Broadway in 10th grade rewarded me with LP obscurities from Scientist, Clint Eastwood and General Saint’s “Two Bad DJ”, etc. and dancehall toasters such as Yellowman. Most intriguing were off label presses from the West Indies that had no graphics, offshoots of King Tubby, Lee Perry, and other greats, all with low tech effects- reverb, echo, and heavy bass tracks.

In the mid 1990s, continuing my quest for obscure dub music, I discovered a dual CD called "Planet Dub" that was a compilation of modern dub using electronica, with tracks by various artist like 100th Monkey, Alien Progeny, Alpha and Omega, Astralasia and more. This is still an amazing compilation that serves as a transition to more modern dub off shoots, namely modern dubstep and other dub influenced electronica.

It was cool for me to discover more recently in the past few years re-emerging interest in dub (for example The Bug’s “Poison Dart”) and even roots reggae bands like 10 Ft Ganja Plant. Listen to their “Walky Walk Tall” and you would not believe it’s a bunch of white guys from upstate New York. Unbelievable!

More mainstream surfer/stoner SoCal rock bands like Sublime and their offshoots like Slightly Stoopid’s “This Joint” continue the tradition. Theivery Corporation's "Amerimaka" is another example.

it didn't. the weobwobwobstep producers simply appropriated the name from original dubstep which came out of the jungle/UK two-step scene. this is why dubstep fans get so pissed when the tag gets applied to the wobstep garbage you hear on every damn mountain bike or ski/board video. if i hear that "cracks begin to show" remix again i'm going to jab a pencil in both ears.

that documentary was really nice. i just watched another one called NY77 which is about the rise of punk and hiphop culture in new york in 1977. it makes a nice complement to Dub Echoes since it goes into the street/block parties of the era which were basically the same thing as the soundsystem scene in jamaica.